SAGINAW — There’s more than one way into the NHL. Michael Sgarbossa is proof.

Sgarbossa, a Saginaw Spirit forward, was passed up on in the June NHL draft, in his first year of eligibility. But that didn’t mean there weren’t teams out there interested in him.

Invited as a free agent to the San Jose Sharks training camp, Sgarbossa spent 10 days earlier this month on the West Coast playing for the Sharks’ rookie team.

Two days before he left to return to Saginaw, the team signed him to an entry-level contract.

“I thought I was going to get drafted and it didn’t work out,” Sgarbossa said. “It turned out to be good for me, because San Jose didn’t have too many picks. I went there, they liked me and they signed me.”

Sgarbossa will be on the ice as the Spirit’s only NHL-signed player when the team opens its home slate with a 7:11 p.m. game Thursday against Sudbury. The Spirit will travel to Plymouth for a Friday night game, before returning to The Dow Event Center for a Saturday game against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.

Sgarbossa didn’t go out to San Jose with the intention of earning a contract. But starting with his first practice, he noticed his play wasn’t far below the NHL level.

“I noticed that I’m not far off from these guys,” Sgarbossa said. “They’re obviously bigger and stronger, but the skill is there.

“The biggest thing is the speed of the game’s a lot different, so you’ve got to adjust to that. Every pass is right on the stick, and you never have to fumble the puck or anything.”

Sgarbossa’s breakout performance came five days into camp, when he scored a hat trick in a rookie squad game against the Edmonton Oilers. Sgarbossa’s performance stole the headlines in a game that included first overall draft pick Taylor Hall, a former Windsor Spitfire now with the Edmonton Oilers.

“That seemed to turn it around for me,” Sgarbossa said of his hat trick. “They seemed to like it a lot.”

Since coming back to Saginaw, Sgarbossa kept up his strong play, notching a goal in Saginaw’s opening weekend. After playing center for most of his hockey career, Sgarbossa moved to winger when he joined a center-heavy Spirit team last November.

This year, he’s moving back to the middle, the place where he said he’s more comfortable. Spirit head coach Todd Watson said he hopes to see more consistency in Sgarbossa’s second year with the team.

“We know he’s a good player, we know he brings a lot to the table,” Watson said. “I think it’s consistency.”

Sgarbossa’s NHL experience proves that the draft isn’t the only entry point to an NHL team — and for some, it could be better to go undrafted.

If San Jose had drafted Sgarbossa in June, the team would have had two years to sign him to a contract before losing his rights. But with him in camp as a free agent, the Sharks had to sign him to acquire his rights, instead of risk him signing with another team.

So, three months after the disappointment of that June weekend, it’s all worked out for the best.

“Drafting is nice in June, on that particular day, you feel great,” Watson said. “But I think in this case, it worked out better for him.”

Sudbury at Saginaw

Faceoff: 7:11 p.m. Thursday

Radio: WSGW-FM 100.5

Online: Join Kyle Austin for a live blog and chat from tonight’s game at mlive.com/spirit